Medium: oil on canvas
Size: 36 x 28 inches (90 x 71 cm)
Owner: Private owner
This painting was sold at auction by W&H Peacock of Bedford on 7 February 2025 (Lot 63) for £150. It is unsigned, but one of the canvas stretcher bars bears a fabric label, ‘Crowe E. Esq 22 Feb. 1898′, perhaps suggesting the date the canvas was made up to be used. A gap in Crowe’s diaries at this point unfortunately means there is no definite evidence of him ordering the canvas to be prepared or starting a painting. The scene is in the style of Eyre Crowe’s later landscapes but was perhaps left unfinished – he often added human figures towards the end of his painting process, and this scene includes no people. The back of the canvas is stamped with the name of artists’ suppliers Geo. Rowney & Co., and the address 52 Rathbone Place – this address was in use by the company from 1820 and appears in the Post Office Directory for London for 1882, but they were no longer there by the time of the Post Office Directory of 1899. Crowe is known to have used canvases by Rowneys (for instance, in Milking Time, 1903). It seems possible that Crowe had a stock of old canvases previously purchased, and sent this one to be stretched in 1898. The extant wooden and gilded frame may have been added subsequently. The location of the scene is as yet unidentified.
Crowe’s possessions, including oil paintings, sketches and drawings, were sold after his death by Messrs Furber at 77 Chancery Lane, London, on 22 February 1911. Unfortunately, the catalogue does not include a description of any oil painting which matches the size and description of this one. The nearest two similar-sounding items are as follows:
- Landscape with Stacks, Buildings and Trees. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 16 x 25½ inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (1s 6d). Unfinished
- Landscape with Trees and Old Buildings. Medium: oil painting or sketch. Size: 23 x 30 inches. Auctioned by Messrs Furber, 22 Feb 1911 (12s)
Eyre Crowe (1824-1910) 